1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing method, a printing apparatus, a printing program executable by an information processing apparatus, and a computer-readable storage medium storing a program for use in a printing utility for performing a printing process in response to a draw command from an application.
2. Related Background Art
Recently, network equipment has been widely used, and a number of personal computers (hereinafter referred to as a PC) and printers are connected in a network. When a printing process is performed in the above-mentioned network environment, a print job is temporarily spooled to distribute and output each page or copy on a plurality of printers for a document of a large number of pages or copies so that a printing time can be shortened, which is referred to as a distributed printing system.
In the above-mentioned network environment, there is a well-known system (color/monochrome distributed printing system) for distributing and outputting color pages to a color printer and monochrome pages to a monochrome printer for a document containing both color pages and monochrome pages so that the printing cost and the printing time can be reduced.
Furthermore, in the above-mentioned network environment, there is a system (broadcast printing system) for simultaneously transmitting and printing a document to a plurality of printers at one print instruction.
Additionally, in the above-mentioned network environment, there is a system (anti-error proxy printing system) for performing a printing process by automatically switching an erroneous printer into another printer for a document transmitted to one printer.
In the printing process performed on the above-mentioned plural printers (printer drivers), a virtual printer driver UI, etc. for defining various print settings for a plurality of printers (printer drivers) is well known.
In the printing systems in the above-mentioned network environments, there is a method in which one virtual printer (group printer) and related member printers are mounted in a client machine, and a group printer inquires about the capability of each member printer to control the UI.
Generally, an application obtains the capability of a printer driver selected as a printing target through the API defined by Windows (R). Especially, a DTP type application inquires of a printer driver selected as a printing target about printable paper size information (supported paper size) about the printer driver so that the paper size and the capabilities defined in the application according to the information can be restricted.
Furthermore, a printer driver normally notifies an application of predetermined capabilities in response to the capability inquiry from the application.
However, in response to an inquiry about a capability from an application, a virtual printer (group printer) has notified predetermined capabilities defined by a group printer driver. Therefore, the capabilities can be different from the actual capabilities depending on the configuration, and the capabilities cannot be informed according to the configuration depending on the configuration of a member printer. Especially, concerning the list of the supported paper size, the list of group printer determined paper sizes is different from the list of member printer paper sizes, and the paper size of the document generated in the application cannot match the paper size used in the output of the actual member printer. Additionally, since the paper size of the document does not match the paper size used in the actual output, an excess image area is output as an incomplete image.
On the other hand, it is not easy for a virtual printing utility such as a group printer driver to perform an arithmetic process on the capability depending on the configuration of a member printer, thereby causing the problem that the response of the display of a user interface for a print setting item of a virtual printer is delayed.